Forbidden Island
by Anise
Summary: Rey and her sister Rose barely manage to make a living on Ben-Dui, the criminal hangout located near the mysterious, forbidden island of Ahch-To. But then a ship crashes, Rey rescues the pilot, Tag Hux, and everything starts to change... Reyux, eventual Reylux. Canon-divergent AU.


A/N: This is for the Summer of Reyux 2019 fic challenge, yay! There are three more weeks, and hopefully I'll post a new short fic every week. This one is set in the Aniseverse canon-divergent AU. There are a lot of specific differences in this AU, but the most important one for this fic involves Armitage Hux. In this AU, Brendol Hux plotted to snatch his son from Arkanis and force him into forbidden, secret military training (basically, what happened in canon.) Senator Snoke of the Western Reaches had Brendol assassinated just before this happened, though, fearing that he would find out Snoke's secret plans to seize power. This turned out really well for Armitage, because he was raised by Rae Sloane from the age of 5 and never subjected to his father's abuse. So his worst qualities never developed… not yet, at least. It doesn't come into this story, but Tag and Ben Solo are best friends. When they both fall in love in Rey, the serious problems start… and there's a LOT of Reylux… but that's way after this fic.

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The little boat bobbed on the sea, the sun shimmering on the deep blue waves around the island of Ben-Dui. Rey sat in the bow, her fishing line cast out, her eyes closed. She'd been up late the night before, tinkering with the cloaking device she was trying to build as her sister kept up a running commentary, and her mind kept running absently over the details. She thought it was at the point where it would work. And if only it did, then she could sell it for more money than anything they'd ever built or fixed. And then—

Suddenly, a low humming sound filled the air. Before Rey could identify what it might be, the noise cut off abruptly.

"What was that?" asked Rey, jerking awake and scanning the horizon. No, that wasn't where the sound had come from. She turned back to the island.

"That sounded like it came from the cove," said Rose, echoing her next thought. "Rey, what do you think it was?"

'I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Reel in the lines." Almost without waiting for her sister to begin, Rey started to row back towards the sound, heading inland, out of the deeper water where the best fish were found.

"That sounded like engines," said Rose. "Oo! Do you think a ship landed in the cove?" Her eyes sparkled.

"The way it cut off was really weird," said Rey, pulling at the oars. "Almost like a crash."

"But it didn't sound loud enough for a crash. Remember that one time when the Rodian ship crashed?" 

Rey nodded without turning her head. She wasn't likely to forget it, even though the crash had been over six years earlier. She'd fixed the ship for a considerable sum, almost all of which the loathsome Unkar Plutt had gotten away from her. She'd been only thirteen years old at the time, though, and she wasn't going to get caught the same way again… if the sound really had been a crash. It was at least possible, even though it hadn't been very loud. Rey knew that some newer ships were equipped with special mufflers so that takeoff and landing were almost silent.

"I'll bet that isn't it. I'll bet that wasn't even a ship landing. Nothing exciting ever happens around here," complained Rose, taking one oar with a sigh.

No, it certainly didn't, thought Rey. Life was an endless round of fishing, mending boats and nets, wincing against the cold, lighting fires to warm their shared hut, and haggling with Unkar Plett for a few credits in exchange for their fish or Rey fixing some mechanical problem or other. There was also the Niima outpost, filled with the criminal dregs of the galaxy. The only pleasure was learning from holofilms and old books she was able to get for a few trugs in the market. The only true happiness was her sister, Rose. And the only excitement, if you could call it that, were her chances to sing, the nights at Old Meru's cantina. Rey had always wished that she could go to the Lanai festivals, had always wondered exactly what they were like, because they'd always sounded like another rare chance for fun. But the Lanai were the only ones permitted to go anywhere near the forbidden nearby island of Ahch-To, where the celebrations were held.

But if a ship really had crashed…

Rey let her mind turn over that possibility as she rowed. Maybe it could change everything. If the ship had the kind of damage that could be fixed. If the pilot couldn't fix it himself. If he or she had enough credits to pay her. If, if, if.

They pulled into the sheltered cove, anchoring the boat behind the curve of a small sea cave. The last thing they needed, thought Rey, was for anyone to see them, see the crashed ship, and then put two and two together. Of course, that assumed there _was _a crashed ship.

"Hey, what if the ship doesn't even have a pilot, and it's a really nice ship, and then we end up with it?" Rose yelled above the surf.

"Shh!" Rey held a finger to her lips. As so often happened when she got excited, Rose was talking loudly enough to be heard by anyone who might happen to be anywhere on the beach. And if anyone else had heard the landing, or crash, or whatever the sound had actually been, and then had come to investigate… or if the pilot turned out to be hostile, which was likely to be the case for anybody who landed on Ben-Dui in the first place… well, Rey far preferred to have the element of surprise.

Rey held up her palm to her sister, indicating that Rose should stay behind on the other side of the rock wall. She slowly crept out of the shadow of the cave, until the sun shone full on the stretch of sand that was sometimes used as a small landing pad for ships in the cove. Her mouth literally dropped open.

The ship on the beach was new, gleaming, and perfect, all sleek silver lines and sharp shining edges. Small and elegant, but not quite a starfighter, more of a cruiser with a dollop of command shuttle and a touch of yacht. She couldn't begin to guess how much it had cost.

Cautiously, she walked closer. The ship was askew on the sand, and she could already tell that there was some damage. Still, it had been a controlled crash at worst The pilot hadn't come down very smoothly, but it wasn't a fiery wreck by any means. The ship could be fixed, or at least that was her guess, although she couldn't possibly be sure until she was able to get inside and take a serious look at the different systems.

She peered close and saw no turbolasers or laser cannons, but there were two of the new photon torpedoes she'd been hearing about. Interesting, she thought. Clearly, this ship wasn't primarily built for fighting. The weapons were there for defense, though, and she'd be willing to bet that there were others she couldn't see.

"Psst!" Rose whispered behind her. "Can I come out now?"

"Yeah, I think you'd better," said Rey.

"Wow," breathed Rose, walking up to stand at her side. "I never thought I'd even see a ship like this."

"Neither did I," said Rey. "I still can't figure out where it's from, or exactly why the pilot even crashed in the first place."

The angle of approach here was too steep, which was why this landing strip wasn't used more often. But if a ship was trying to land on the isolated beach at Ben-Dui, the pilot would know exactly how to land, to compensate for the tiny space available. Nobody would come here at random. Except… There had been one other time when Rey was about nine years old, only a couple of years after she and Rose had been left on the island, when she remembered that a ship had crashed. A Federation ship with a Peacekeeping Forces pilot, she remembered now. Exactly why he'd been there wasn't known for sure. He'd died shortly after the crash without enough time to explain anything. But the speculation had been that he'd planned to enforce Fed law over the criminals on the islands. So many were glad he'd died, and they would have been more than happy to hasten the project along if it hadn't happened on its own.

What if the same thing had happened to this pilot, whoever he or she might be?

"But what about the pilot?" asked Rose, with the trick she had of following her sister's thoughts.

"I don't know, but we'd better find out," Rey said. "If we're lucky, he's just a smuggler, and he'll need help fixing this ship."

"Which we'll be happy to do for enough credits," Rose said gleefully. "This could be so great, Rey! It really could be our chance."

"Let's not count the Porg eggs before they're hatched," said Rey, continuing to examine the ship.

"Oh, come on." Rose scampered after her on shorter legs. "I have a good feeling about this, sis. What if the pilot is a cute young guy? Somebody new?"

Rey rolled her eyes. But she couldn't really blame her sister for the thought, silly as she privately believed it was. The pilot would be a new face in a place where the only faces she ever saw, old or young, human or alien, were petty criminals. Only the dregs of crime made it to this island, ruled by Unkar Plett. Rey had often dreamed wistfully of seeing someone else, anyone else, who didn't answer to Plutt.

As for his identity… The more discreet a criminal needed to be, the more likely it was that they'd choose the hidden cove. And this pilot had almost made it. Most likely he was just another criminal, a clumsy one. That still didn't explain the elegance of the ship, though.

Rey walked around the side of the ship, seeing heavier damage, and peered into the cockpit.

It was empty. Only a few yards back, she saw an open escape hatch.

"That's it, Rose. He's got to be right around here," she said, turning around scanning the beach and cliffs behind them. "He can't have got far—"

"There! What's that?" Rose pointed at a sodden black lump on the rocks only about twenty yards away from them both.

Rey walked back and pulled up a black coat, a little torn but obviously fine quality.

"Well, that's not a fish," Rose sensibly pointed out.

"This hasn't been here very long," said Rey, her fingers rubbing over the wool. It wasn't even saturated with water yet. "The pilot has to be right around here—did you hear that?"

A sudden groan had come from somewhere very near them, almost quiet enough to be mistaken for the sound of the waves against the shore. Rey scrambled up and back into a small crevice in the cliff side one that turned into a sea cave at high tide. She blinked at the sudden darkness. One bright ray of afternoon sunlight shone through a nook high in the rock wall, striking a blaze of reddish gold, like a piece of jewelry carelessly cast into the sea.

When Rey got closer, she saw that it was a lock of hair.

The man it belonged to was lying against one large boulder, the seawater beginning to creep up his elegant shoes as the tide rose. In less than an hour, this crevice would be completely underwater. Rey knew she had to get out of there, and soon, but she couldn't stop staring. He was like an exotic fish washed up to shore, this man, tall and slender, his bright gleaming hair in tangled strands around his white, still, sculpted face.

"Rey, what are you doing in there? Come on, the tide's coming in right now, and we have to find—" Rose stopped at the mouth of the cave. "Wow. I guess you did. Oh my gods, Rey, look."

Rose pointed down at something, and Rey dragged her gaze away from that striking face. She stared down at his neat, navy blue uniform, and she knew what Rose was pointing at. Rey immediately recognized the circle and star insignia attached near his left shoulder. She'd only seen that symbol in official Republic holofilms, and she wasn't sure what the added green stripe meant. But she knew exactly what it belonged to: the United Federation of Systems.

"He has to be Fed," said Rose.

Rey nodded. "At least we know that much. I feel really dumb for not recognizing that ship."

"Well, there wasn't any insignia on it," Rose pointed out.

"Yeah. Which could mean that he doesn't want anybody to know he's here."

"So now what?" asked Rose.

Rey leaned down and pressed her fingers against the man's wrist. His skin was smooth, but his forearm was corded with lean muscle, she couldn't help noticing. The pulse was thready, but at least it was there. She pinched his arm. He frowned just slightly but didn't open his eyes.

"We've got to get him to shelter," said Rey.

"Are you sure?" Rose looked worried. "I mean, I thought he'd be walking on his own two feet. And he's a very good-looking guy and all, but can you imagine the trouble we'd get into if somebody saw us, and if Plutt found out we were helping him…"

Rey raised her dark eyebrows. "Do you really just want to leave him here to die?"

"I didn't say that!" protested Rose. "How bad off is he, do you think?"

"I don't honestly know," said Rey. "I can't tell if he's badly hurt or not, but if we leave him on the beach, I don't think he's going to make it."

"Well, of course we can't do that, then," said Rose. "I was only thinking of you."

"I know," said Rey. "But look at it this way—we'll never get him to pay us to fix the ship if he's dead."

"Plutt would let him die and steal the ship anyway," said Rose. "I mean, I'm just _saying,_" she hastily added. "I'm not saying _we _should do it."

"I hope not. Not to mention that most of the time, Feds have a failsafe on the hyperdrive and you can't start it without a code."

"Besides, he really is cute," added Rose.

"Not right now, Rose…" Rey tapped a finger against her chin, hoping her sister didn't notice that her hands were trembling. "Okay, let me think… there's no way we can get him up the steps…"

"Not unless you built a mag-lev loader you didn't tell me about," said Rose in a hopeful way.

Rey shook her head. "I wish. No, we have to drag him to the little hut."

It was just as long and slow and miserable a process as Rey had feared.

"I hope he didn't- break his neck or- anything, because if he did, I think- we just—_ergh_!- killed him," Rose informed her between violent tugs.

They'd just pulled him over a particularly large rock, and after the noise he'd made when the back of his leg hit a sharp point, Rey had to wonder the same thing. No; she'd just seen him move his feet.

"Ugh, I wish we had a transporter," moaned Rose.

"Well—we- don't," gasped Rey. "Rose! You're pulling his right arm in the wrong direction. We need him in one piece."

Somehow, they managed to get the unconscious man up the beach to the small hut that they often used during the height of fishing season. Together, they managed to haul him onto the rough mattress on the floor. It was stuffed with sea rushes, so at least it was reasonably soft.

"I wonder if anybody's going to figure this out from the sound of the crash," mused Rose.

"I'm not so sure," said Rey. "But I think not. It wasn't very loud—we just happened to hear it because we were fishing on that side. But the problem is that we also have to hide his ship, or Plutt and everybody else will figure out that he's here. Rose, you'll have to get the device."

Rose's dark eyes widened. She looked to the unconscious man uncertainly, and then back at Rose. "Are you sure? If anyone finds it out there…"

"We have to take the chance," said Rey.

"Okay," sighed Rose. "I'll ho back and get it. You want to stay here with him; I can tell." She gave an impish grin.

"Well…" Rey could feel the color rising in her cheeks. "I couldn't leave him for dead, and that's what we would've been doing if we didn't bring him back here."

"I'm sure that's the only reason you're doing this. Not because he's so cute."

"Will you stop? This is _not _some kind of weird love story; you need to stop reading those horrible trashy romance holonovels." _Ugh, why do I have to keep blushing?_ "Maybe…" Rey was struck by sudden inspiration. "Rose, when he comes to, maybe he can help us right away in exchange for helping him. Even before we convince him to let us fix the ship. He must have things on that ship he'd be willing to trade now. Or even just information."

"Okay, if nobody catches me with the device and steals it and throws me off a cliff to a horrible death, I'll be back soon," Rose called cheerfully on her way out.

The door closed, and Rey was alone with this man in a small hut. A_ very_ small hut. Just the awareness of his presence seemed to be shrinking the space. She could hear his every breath, which she guessed was a good sign. At least he was breathing.

She really hoped that Rose's gallows humor hadn't held any truth. Rey hadn't wanted anyone to know that she was working on a portable cloaking device for ships. If Unkar Plutt found out, he would try to get it away from her and make all the money himself. But if she could perfect it first, and then she and Rose could sell it on their own, maybe they'd make enough credits to… what? Get off the island? But she couldn't, she thought, sighing. They had to wait for their family to come back. And they would come back someday soon; Rey was sure of it. No, her most cherished wish was to get enough money together to pay someone else to find them. '

Maybe… her earlier thought came back to her. Maybe this mysterious Fed officer really could help them in more ways than one. He obviously had traveled the galaxy at least to some extent; he might know some news that wouldn't be available to the dregs of criminal scum that frequented Ben-Dui. She could describe her parents and grandmother along with their ship; she could tell him everything she knew, and maybe he'd heard something about them, somewhere.

Not that the project was going to get very far if he didn't regain consciousness.

Well, first things first. Rey bent down and peered into a few battered drawers in the chipped dresser by the cot, opening and closing them. There were extra clean cloths, dried fish jerky in metal boxes, scaling knives, lures, and so on, but she didn't find any disinfectant or sterilizing solution, which she hadn't really expected to. There might be a few more medical supplies up in their main hut, but there was no way she was going to leave this man alone while she went and got them. _I should've asked Rose_, she thought, sighing. _I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way._

She'd boil some fresh water to wash the wound on his head, and maybe try to figure out how serious it really was. Rey began to get up to start the project, and gasped when she felt a strong hand clutch onto her wrist. She looked down and saw that the man had grabbed onto her, even though his eyes were still closed. _He must not have any idea of what he's doing, _Rey decided. She tried to pull her arm away gently, but his grip was amazingly strong.

"Please, let go," she whispered, bending down to him. "I'm trying to help you. Just let go for now. Okay?"

She didn't think he was going to understand anything she'd said, but he did let go of her arm. She moved towards the camp stove, her skin tingling from each separate imprint of his fingers. Dipping fresh water from a small cistern, she quickly brought it to a boil and then poured it into a pan, mixing in fresh cold water to try to adjust the temperature.

Rey sat back down on the side of the cot and dipped a clean cloth—well, it was fairly clean, anyway—into the steaming water. She gently began pressing it against the side of his head and rinsing away the blood. The wound had stopped bleeding, and she gave a sigh of relief.

She sat looking down at the man's face as she washed him. He was very young, she saw now, probably no more than a couple of years older than herself. His features were very handsome, even when he was frowning and grimacing. High cheekbones, a strong chin, a marked forehead. His dark auburn eyebrows looked shockingly dark against his pale skin. His lighter red-gold hair was a wet, tangled mess, but it was neatly trimmed, much more so than hers. She wondered what color his eyes were.

As if in response to her thought, the sandy eyelashes fluttered open, revealing brilliant blue eyes with silvery facets.

"Shh," she said, as he began to open his mouth. "Don't try to talk. You need to stay quiet and calm." If it came to that, Rey wished that _she_ felt calmer, which seemed to be difficult after he'd opened those silvery blue eyes. "I'm going to bandage your head now," she added, tearing up another strip of cloth.

He subsided into silence as she tried to gauge how best to tie the bandage. If she bound it up too tightly, of course, it might be worse than doing nothing at all. She didn't think the head wound was as serious as she'd feared at first, but he looked so pale and helpless, and she guessed that he must have lost at least some blood. _And it's not like blood transfusions are exactly available here! Or bacta tanks, or…much of anything else, really. _

He kept watching her, his sky-colored eyes tracing her every move, making her nervous and awkward. Once, she dropped the strip of cloth and had to start over. But at last, he was washed and bandaged, and he sighed and lay still.

They both lapsed into silence. Rey could hear the waves crashing against the shore, the tide coming in, the soft sound of his breathing and her own, the creaks and cracks of the uneven driftwood that they'd used to build the shed. She was hyperaware of everything. Some kind of spicy scent was coming off his skin, even through the tang of seawater. She could even feel the faint warmth of his body so near to hers.

His eyes shifted from her face to move down her own body, and Rey could just feel her skin threatening to blush again when she realized just how close they were. She'd been leaning very closely over him when she worked on his head, and for some reason she couldn't understand, she hadn't yet pulled back. _I'm going to move right now_, she decided. _I'm going to push this chair away from the cot and stand up. I am. See? I'm doing it right now. _

But she wasn't moving.

"What's your name?" she whispered, because the shared silence was unbearably intimate. She realized a second too late that she'd told him to stay quiet.

"Tag," he answered in a whisper. "Tag Hux. I… thank you. Who are you?"

His voice was clipped and precise and elegant, with a refined Inner Rim accent. Rey instantly remembered that she was dirty and sweaty and rumpled, and that the insignia on his uniform was probably worth more than every piece of clothing she owned.

"I'm Rey," she said tightly.

He smiled. The expression transformed his pale, severe features into something boyish and soft. Rey couldn't help it. And even though she never, ever smiled at young men, or showed them any pleasant expression at all, she couldn't help smiling back at him.


End file.
